This invention relates a data structure (or a recording format) capable of recording one or more types of information, including audio information, among video (movie) information, still picture (still image) information, and audio (sound) information and performing common management of these types of information, an information medium for recording information using the data structure, and a method of recording information based on the data structure onto an information medium.
(Prior Art)
DVD videos (for playback only), optical discs on which video information has been recorded by a video compression method complying with the MPEG 2 standard, have already been commercialized and rapidly been popularized. On the other hand, recordable/reproducible DVDs which enable the user to digital-record analog video information have begun to appear on the market. The recordable/reproducible DVD is also called RTR (real-time recording recordable/reproducible DVD). The standardization of streamers that record digital TV broadcast reception video information (digital bit streams) is also in progress. In the format structure conforming to the standard that allows the user to record video information, playback units are represented in cells as in the format of the DVD video disc and the relationship between the individual cells is included in PGC (program chain) control information. Presently, MDs (minidiscs) are available on the market as user-oriented digital audio recording mediums.
(Subjects)
Since the RTR (recordable/reproducible DVD) disc differs from the MD in the disc size and the data format in recording, the MD recording data cannot be recorded directly in the RTR (recordable/reproducible DVD) format. Moreover, in the RTR (recordable/reproducible DVD) standard, audio information cannot be recorded on an information medium independently. Thus, presently, there is no method of recording audio information together with video information and/or still picture information on a single information medium and reproducing those types of information in a mixed manner in an arbitrary order.
(Objects)
An object of the present invention is to provide a data structure (format structure) which enables not only video information, still picture information and/or audio information to be mixed with each other and recorded on the same information medium but also any area in each of the video information, still picture information, and audio information to be reproduced in an arbitrary order.
One other object of the present invention is to provide an information medium on which information is recorded using the data structure (format structure).
Still one other object of the present invention is to provide a method of recording information based on the data structure (format structure) on an information medium.